Our focus is and always has been on fine letterpress printing, whether from wood, metal, or (lets face it...) plastic! The times and some of the materials may have changed, but for 550 years the fine art and craft of letterpress printing has not. Information on our presses and printing capabilities can be found here, but as a full service letterpress print shop, printing ink on paper is not the only thing that we do. From in-house polymer plate making, to custom die-cutting, hot foil stamping, and bookbinding, we are equally proud to offer these additional services.

DESIGN

We offer a full range of graphic design services. This can involve creating a new design from an initial consult to adapting existing designs to take better advantage of the letterpress process. In addition to digital design printed via polymer and/or metal plates, we can work from our extensive collection of wood type, handset type, and newly cast metal type. Design fees depend on the complexity and scope of each project, so please indicate if you are interested in design services when contacting the shop for a quote.

HOT FOIL STAMPING

We can foil stamp from newly cast type or magnesium plates made from digital files. Hot foil stamping can add the perfect accent to your pieces, and is particularly useful when using very light colors on a much darker surface. It is not printing per se, but a method for transferring a very thin opaque foil through heat and pressure onto a printable surface, completely blocking out any of the original surface color. Because of the heat and pressure involved, foil stamping must be done from a metal plate or type, and is generally speaking slower then printing ink, which can add to the cost

We take orders for short and long runs, from a minimum of 25 to thousands of pencils. There are some restrictions as to line length and available colors, please see the pencil page for more information.

HOT METAL TYPECASTING

We have a growing library of original brass type matrices which can be used to cast new brand metal type for your project. Newly cast type prints extremely sharp, is cast from the original designs as they were drawn and punched, foregoes the cost of having to make a photo polymer plate, and is melted to be reused when the printing is finished.

Called it the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison, our Linotype is used mainly for smaller type sizes (it was designed for book and newspaper work primarily), and also for all of the type we foil-stamp onto pencils. For larger type up to 96 points, we handset the type matrices and cast them on our Ludlow Model L . We are equally excited when using these machines for the exact purpose they were designed for (book and display work), as well as exploring new territories for artists and designers to see what new ideas and projects this older technology can do.